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Thursday, 6 March 2014

The Education Market and Chapter Books by George Ivanoff #ChaBooCha

The Education market is full of chapter books! It’s a great
place for an author to gain experience, regular publication and maybe even earn
a living.

The primary school education market is HUGE! Many books are
published each year and marketed directly into schools. There is a considerable
variety of books — graded school readers that kids take home to practice their
reading; reference books; and fiction that ties in to the curriculum.

During 2013, I wrote a total of 14 education titles. There
were three curriculum-based reference books of 3,000-5,000 words each; three
non-fiction school readers of about 500-1,200 words each; six fictional readers
of 250-900 words each; and two fictional chapter books that tied in to the
curriculum, one at 2500 words, the other at 9,000 words.

What all these titles had in common, was that they were
written to a brief. I did not initiate the creative process. I was told what to
write. A lot of writers have a problem with this. They like the freedom to tell
their own stories in the way they want — and that’s great. I like doing that
too, which is why I write for the trade market as well (with books like my Gamers trilogy of novels, and the
forthcoming You Choose series). But
there are also many great things about the education market.

There’s the money, which is important if you’re trying to
make a living out of your writing. Education titles tend to pay a once-off
upfront fee rather than royalties.

Education titles are mostly contracted, so you know that
what you are writing will be published and you will be paid. (Having said that,
there have been a couple of instances where a publisher has cancelled a series.
Although those books have not been published, I was paid for them.)

There is the knowledge that you are helping to educate kids
and foster literacy. As someone who began school life as a reluctant reader,
this is very close to my heart.

But the big thing for me is the challenge. I love the
challenge of writing a book that fulfils the varied educational needs of the
brief, but is still something that kids will want to read.

The specificity of the briefs can vary quite a bit. The
brief for one of the chapter books specified that it had to be a story set in
an alien zoo, so I wrote Escape From the
Alien Zoo, about a shape-changing animal that breaks out and causes havoc
as the staff try to recapture it.

A brief for a set of readers wanted five separate stories
with the same central character or characters, and a fairytale theme. This was
my favourite contract of 2014. I had a lot of fun devising the Fairytale Fixits scenario. In each of
the five books, two kids are transported into a famous fairytale where
something has gone wrong. It is up to them to fix the situation so the story
can be finished.

Sometimes, there is more to a brief than just the basic
setting. One of the more challenging projects I had in 2013 was a fictional
chapter book that needed to tie in with the Australian Geography curriculum at
Grade 3 level.

The specific topic was “protecting places”, with the
following description: “The similarities and differences in individual’s and
group’s feelings and perceptions about places, and how they influence views
about the protection of these places”. Furthermore that story had to include
information on the importance of protecting places of significance. It also had
to include some cross-curriculum priorities such as indigenous Australian
history and culture.

It needed to be 2,000-2,400 words long, with approximately
100 words per page. Yes, I had to submit the story broken up into its 23 pages,
with a new paragraph beginning each page.

The language and sentence structure had to be appropriate
for Grade 3 level. And it had to fall within that level on the Flesch–Kincaid
Grade Level test (For an explanation of the Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flesch-Kincaid).

The end result was Lost
at Lake Mungo, a story about a school excursion to Lake Mungo, an area of
both environmental and cultural importance, where two of the kids get separated
from their group. Over the course of their adventure, these two boys come to
realise the importance of the area and why it needs to be protected.

If this is the sort of writing that appeals to you, then the
education market is a great place to work. I do most of my education writing
for Pearson Australia and Macmillan Education, but there are other publishers
out there as well. Do a Google search and check out the publishers’ websites to
see what their criteria are for writers.

Now… get writing!

*****

George Ivanoff is a Melbourne author and stay-at-home dad.
He’s written over 70 books for kids and teens, won a couple of awards that no
one’s ever heard of, and managed to get some books onto the Vic and NSW
Premiers’ Reading Challenge booklists. He is best known for his Gamers books, a trilogy of novels set in
a computer game world. His new interactive series of books, You Choose, will hit the shelves in May
2014. Check out his website: georgeivanoff.com.au

*****

George has many children books available, and I have chosen one from his popular Gamer's trilogy, "Gamer's Quest" for one lucky person to win.

Comment on this post by March 13th (noon GMT), to be entered into the drawing for a paperback copy of George Ivanoff's "Gamer's Quest." Winner will be chosen by a random number generator on March 13th at noon GMT. You must be signed up for the challenge to qualify.

I would love to break into the education market, but what chance does a new writer have of gaining a contract. I have no idea where to start. Some information on that, with this post, would have been helpful and welcome.

Thank you for an interesting post! When I went back to college at 44, I went with the idea of writing textbooks but got sidetracked by retelling fairytales and then writing chapter books and middle grade novels. To be honest, I think I would have trouble being so structured

re: StructureHonestly, although it's a shock to the system the first time, you get used to it.

Sue, re: breaking inI broke into the education market by accident. It was a case of meeting the right person at the right time. In your shoes, what I'd be doing is choosing a publisher to pitch to... read some of their recent releases; write a sample reader; and send it to them as an example of your writing with a request to be considered next time they are commissioning.

lindaschueler, re: deadlinesDeadlines vary considerably. I had about two months for each of my recent reference books. With the Fairytale Fixits, I had about a week to come up with the concept and pitch which Fairytales I would use. Then, once I got approval, a bit over a week to write the first 3 and then a week to do the second 2. The "Lost At Lake Mungo" book was commissioned as an emergency replacement for an author who had dropped out — that was turned over in 8 days (But I had visited Lake Mungo a fews months before, so there was minimal research to do).

Wow, George, this was such a fantastic post. I have been considering this market too and have just sent my resume to MacMillan and Pearson Australia, ( I am also a Melbournian) Loved hearing how quickly each brief and manuscript had to be written too. Thanks so much for sharing it with us. Julie Anne Grasso

I don't know how I missed this post earlier! Great info and it's always neat to read another author's story. I'm not yet ready to write books this short. It must be incredibly difficult. It's great there are stories like this out there to challenge kids.

Thanks for this information! I never knew how educational books were chosen. It sounds interesting, it's almost like they give you a writing prompt. Some of those deadlines you list are very tight, so that would be a concern. However, I've never written this type/length of story before, so perhaps since it's shorter the timing is less intimidating.

Chapter Book Challenge

This is a challenge to write one chapter book in one month. The first one will be running in March 2012, and you can join in by the 1st of the month. There will be progressupdates, inspirational posts, and guest posts by published chapter book authorsand agents. There will even be some terrific prizes!

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